MILTON: Pro soccer team for city sees dome at Ticat field

TIM HORTONS FIELD

Scott Gardner,The Hamilton Spectator

A partnership including Ticats owner Bob Young announced plans Wednesday for a national soccer league with a team in Hamilton. But the franchise depends on a dome over the Tim Hortons field playing surface.

Hamilton will have a team, possibly the flagship team, in the new Canadian Premier Soccer League that is expected to begin play for the 2018 season, if not next year.

The revelation came during a Wednesday morning presentation to city councillors by John McGrane, who was seeking permission to erect a multimillion dollar bubble, paid for by Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young, over the playing field at Tim Hortons Field. The bubble, or dome, would be in place every year from Dec. 1 to April 30.

McGrane's company, John McGrane Services, is a "small partner" with Young in the bubble initiative. Young's company will own the soccer team outright.

The league — called the Canadian Premier League and to be fully sanctioned by FIFA the global governing body for the sport — will start with six to eight teams with deep-pocketed ownership, including Young, who will own the Hamilton franchise.

"Basically it will be a CFL-NHL mix of ownership," McGrane told The Spectator. He would not name which other Canadian cities would have teams or who the prospective owners are.

McGrane did say an official announcement of the formation of the league would likely occur within four months.

The future of pro soccer here isn't necessarily tied to having a dome at Tim Hortons Field, but McGrane said it would be of great advantage to the team

"A pro soccer team needs to be a year-round operation," he said.

McGrane said part of the soccer/bubble plan would be to develop an "academy," which most upper level pro soccer teams have. Players as young as six learn the game and are steered toward careers in the game. The soccer academy would be regular users of the bubble during the winter months. The pro team would also train there for certain periods.

As well, there is a possibility of developing a full education program tied to the soccer team, eventually leading to things like an MBA program to develop soccer management and executives.

"We want to Canadianize the whole league, not just the players," McGrane told The Spectator before the meeting. "We're looking at a whole culture of executives, managers and so forth. We don't want to import them."

McGrane also said a large number of hours will be available in the dome, for free, for community use.

Councillors listened to McGrane's report and had a number of queries that included questions about the financial viability and overall popularity of soccer, then asked staff to report back on all options for building and operating a dome. Councillors also heard from Hamilton Indoor Turf Operators Group, which represents other indoor sports facilities in the area and presented counter-arguments to the air-dome proposal at Tim Hortons Field.

It is known that while there will be foreign players in the Premier League, one of its strongest selling points will be a minimum quota of Canadian players each team is required to use. Major League Soccer, the top U.S. league that has teams in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, has a North American quota and no team is required by league mandate to play Canadians.

The concept of a new Canadian-born-and-bred league was first reported by The Spectator two years ago and if it is passed, as expected, at the Canadian Soccer Association's annual general meeting in May, the CSA could be a partner in the Canadian Premier League.

"Without pro soccer this would not happen," McGrane said of the air-dome proposal and Young's willingness to invest $3-plus million dollar in the bubble. "The money going into this is because of professional soccer."

McGrane praised Ticats executives Doug Rye and Scott Mitchell for their commitment to pro soccer and local grassroots soccer.

"Scott Mitchell has been the leader over the last six months," he said. "For a football guy he's done a great job of embracing the soccer culture in the city. I think it will be great to have another pro franchise in the city."

(22) Comments

By Demi|FEBRUARY 05, 2016 04:14 PM

Young's willingness to invest millions in bubbles is a matter of historical record: “When the Tiger-Cats finished 1-17 and went bankrupt in 2003, I made the very silly emotional decision to put my money where my heart was. Financially it has been one of the worst ideas I've ever had. No, scratch that - it has been easily the worst financial idea I've ever had.” http://ticats.ca/caretaker-s-update-pan-am-stadium

Yes, Zoltan and speaking of our "council" "Hi Scott(Mitchell)it's Bob, I just got word that council voted heavily in favor of building our stadium at west harbour, what do you suggest we do?" "No worry Bob, we'll simply announce that we'll be play in Moncton before we play at west harbour, that should be enough to get these week kneed, pom pom cheering councilors back to the table for another vote, I mean half of them, including the councilor who does play by play for us will immediately start crying when they hear about our threat, we'll get our preferred location." It's another hobby for Bob's ego and it keeps his incompetent employees busy.